


Gold, Cold

by beotkkotjin



Category: The Flash (Comics), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Fairy Tale Style, M/M, Revisionist Fairy Tale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-26
Updated: 2016-01-26
Packaged: 2018-05-16 09:50:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5824039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beotkkotjin/pseuds/beotkkotjin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An unnamed man saves Bartholomew Allen from a terrible fate. He asks for something in return. (A Rumplestiltskin re-telling).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gold, Cold

There was a beloved doctor in a corrupt kingdom, who was so adept at curing ills that people believed him to be magic. When the king heard about this doctor, he sent him extravagant gifts and invited him to his castle, hoping to employ him as a personal physician.

But the doctor refused. He turned away the king’s messengers, returned his gifts, and announced that he would not leave his little village to care for the king.

The king was angry and humiliated, and did all he could to ruin the good doctor.

Yet nothing he did worked, for the people loved the doctor more then they feared the king.

One day, a prince from a faraway land encountered the good doctor and his family on his way to meet with the king. When he arrived at the castle, he regaled the king with stories of their kindness. “Oh, but their young son is so clever I’m sure he could spin straw into gold!”

It was this statement that delighted the king the most. All gold in the kingdom was the king’s property, including anyone capable of spinning them.

“I must meet this doctor’s son,” the king said. “If he is capable of spinning gold, then he must live in the castle with me and be my concubine. But if he is not, then he is a liar and must be put to death.”

He sent his knights to the doctor’s house to retrieve his son, and locked him in a dark room in the castle filled with straw.

“If you do not turn the straw in this room to gold, then you shall be put to death for your lies.” The king said. Then he locked the young man inside.

The doctor’s son cried, for he did not know how to turn anything into gold, let alone straw. His cries must have been loud, because a small, hidden door inside the room opened, and a man stepped out.

“What are you crying about, kid?” The man from the hidden door asked.

“The king has ordered me to turn all this straw into gold, or he will kill me.” The young man cried.

The man from the hidden door laughed. “Well that’s easy,” he said. “I can do that for you, if you’ll give me something in return.”

“What shall I give you?” the young man asked.

“Give me your name,” was the reply.

The young man found this to be a reasonable price for his life, and told the man from the hidden door his name. “I am Bartholomew,” he said.

The man from the hidden door took out an machine made out of gold and aimed it at a pile of straw. There was a whirr, and the pile of straw turned into gold. The man did this until all of the straw had turned into gold, and then left through the hidden door he had come from.

Bartholomew was in awe. What the man had done was impossible. And even more, what the man had done had saved his life.

When the king arrived the next morning, he was greeted by the sight of all the straw that had been turned into gold. He had been ready to execute the doctor’s son, and was instead shocked that the boy had managed to do the impossible.

He dragged Bartholomew into a bigger, darker room filled with even more straw and demanded he repeat the miracle. “If you don’t, you will be executed.” The king warned.

Bartholomew started crying once again, feeling angry and hopeless. He now knew that the king would never let him leave the castle alive.

As he lay curled up on the ground, another hidden door opened, and the same man from the day before entered the room. “Still here, kid?” The man asked.

“As you can see,” Bartholomew said, annoyed, “this is a different room with different piles of hay that I must turn into gold.” Bartholomew was not usually rude, but his situation had sapped the good will from his bones.

Luckily, the man from the hidden door was not offended. He chuckled, and offered his services to Bartholomew.

“I will turn all of this into gold, if you give me one of the rings around your neck,” the man said.

Bartholomew hesitated. The rings were his parents’, and they were valuable. They had been given to him after his mother’s death, and he did not want to give either one to a stranger.

Still, he grabbed his father’s ring and handed it to the man.

The man took out his golden device and turned all the straw into gold. Then he left.

When the king arrived the next day, he was once again greeted by the sight of gold that had once been straw. He grabbed Bartholomew and threw him into an even larger, even danker room filled with even more straw.

This time, he told Bartholomew that if he turned the straw into gold, he would make Bartholomew his concubine. If he didn’t, he would be put to death.

Bartholomew cried the hardest he had ever cried, and when the man from the hidden door came, Bartholomew ignored him and cried harder.

“I’m here, kid. I’ll turn the straw into gold for you,” the man said.

Bartholomew shook his head. “No - it would only mean I would have to marry that horrible man,” he said. “I would rather die.”

The man from the hidden door said nothing for so long that Bartholomew looked up. He saw that the man had gone, and had left behind the golden device he’d used to turn the straw into gold.

Bartholomew waited until the last possible moment to turn the straw into gold. It was only the thought of his father’s grief at his death that caused him to do it in the end.

When the king arrived, he tried to usher Bartholomew out of the dank room, ready to announce to the kingdom the coming of a royal wedding.

But before the king could do so, a voice interrupted the king.

“I don’t think so, King Eobard.”

Both Bartholomew and King Eobard turned towards the voice. Bartholomew saw that it was the man from the hidden door, except this time, he was dressed in fine robes.

“And who are you to think?” the king asked, annoyed at the interruption.

“I a Bartholomew’s betrothed,” the man replied. Then, he took out Bartholomew’s father’s ring and showed it to the king. “He promised to marry me in exchange for saving his life, you see.”

The king roared. Life debts were sacred in any kingdom, and he knew he had lost his claim to Bartholomew. “You are no longer welcome in my kingdom, Bartholomew Allen!” King Eobard shouted, and the man from the hidden door scooped Bartholomew up into his arms and ran from the castle.

Outside, waiting for them, was a chariot pulled by majestic white horses. The man from the hidden door pulled the door open for Bartholomew. Once they were both inside, Bartholomew turned to the man.

“You were saving my life the whole time,” he said.

The man nodded. “I did it to save your life, but,” the man paused. “My proposal was not in jest. I would give you anything, if only you would marry me.”

Bartholomew looked at the man. “I will marry you, if you give me one thing,” he said.

“Anything,” the man replied.

“Give me your name.”

Later on, the man would tell him that his name was Leonard Snart. Bartholomew would laugh and say, “that’s even worse than Bartholomew,” as he leaned in to kiss him.

“But you must know that wasn’t what I meant when I asked for your name.”

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me at riceandshine|tumblr.


End file.
